The present invention relates to game playing on the Internet, and more particularly, is directed to a system having a home web site and affiliated web sites wherein the games require players to visit at least selected ones of the affiliated web sites.
Game playing is a very popular pastime. The Internet facilitates multi-player gaming, which is particularly satisfying for certain game players. It is well known that habitual game players often spend a lot of time in game playing and are actively engaged in the game scenarios.
The Internet has also proved useful for business advertising. There are many Internet-based schemes for attracting visitors to web sites, such as banner ads, hyperlinks on affiliated web sites, web sites that offer xe2x80x9ctoursxe2x80x9d of other web sites in which the user passively watches a sequence of pages from different web sites, and so on. However, as the novelty of the Internet wears off, businesses are finding that so-called xe2x80x9cclick throughxe2x80x9d rates, such as how a user clicks on a banner ad to go to the advertiser""s web site, experience large decreases.
Accordingly, there is room to make use of the factors that engage people in Internet-based gaming to improve the effectiveness of Internet-based advertising.
In accordance with an aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of operating a game, comprising enabling performance of game activity at a home site, and reflecting, at the home site, game activity performed at a play site.
The play site is selected from a list of play sites provided by the home site at the start of the game, in accordance with interests of a game player and/or because characteristics of a game player satisfy desired player characteristics associated with the play site. The home site game activity may be answering a question about information provided at the play site. The play site game activity may be viewing information at the play site, or pseudo-buying an item at the play site.
In accordance with an aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of pseudo-buying, comprising receiving, at a web site, actions for purchasing a good or service, automatically determining that the purchase is part of a game, and automatically preventing the purchase actions from resulting in an actual purchase transaction.
The determining may include examining a cookie automatically provided by the purchaser""s web browser to the web site, or examining information manually provided by the purchaser to the web site as part of the purchasing actions, or searching for the purchaser on a list provided from another web site.
In accordance with an aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of operating a game, comprising providing, from a home site to a player, a list of play sites and a member icon associated with a member, and receiving, at the home site, an indication that the player found the member icon at one of the play sites.
After the indication is received, communication between the player and the member may be enabled. Additionally, a group clue may be provided from the home site to the player so the player can determine whether the member is part of a group including the player.
In accordance with an aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of enabling game playing, comprising receiving input from a player at a play site selected from a list of play sites, the list being provided from a home site to the player, and automatically acting to produce a result for a game at the home site.
It is not intended that the invention be summarized here in its entirety. Rather, further features, aspects and advantages of the invention are set forth in or are apparent from the following description and drawings.